Space Pen

collecting pens
maxine greco asked:


What’s the best pen to carry in your pocket? This pen also fits easily inside those personal organizers or in a woman’s small purse. It’s the pen by Fisher Space Pen Company called the “space pen.” This pen is 3.75 inches (95mm) closed and opens to a full 5.25 inches (133mm). Besides the handy size, it’s what inside that makes this pen so special and so admired. It doesn’t matter how hot or cold it becomes. It will write in -30 degrees to +250 degrees Fahrenheit. It will also write at different angles, whether lying in bed, or driving in the car and leaning up against the dashboard. It will even write upside down. It writes over grease and on photographs. It will even write on wet surfaces. The cartridge is pressurized at nearly 35 pounds per square inch and the ink is fed continuously to the carbide ball. This carbide ball is made of tungsten, and it allows the user to write in any position. The stainless steel precision socket prevents leaking. The problem of evaporation and wasted ink along with back leakage has been eliminated. This pen is perfect to throw in your lightweight luggage when traveling or to take along on board in your carryon. It will write on coated stock golf scorecards and can be used to mark a map when navigating. You can write outdoors in all weather conditions, whether it’s snowing or raining. This makes its perfect for boaters, campers, fishermen and hikers. Snowboarders, white water rafters and skiers will love it also. You don’t have to be into extreme sports, just sit around on a beach chair and do your crossword puzzle. It will write easily from any position.

Paul C. Fisher invented the pen in 1965. He sent his pen design to Houston Space Center and NASA began testing it. Prior to this invention, astronauts had to use pencils for note taking and the graphite used could break off and float around the cabin. This was a very serious hazard, as the lead could become lodged in electrical switches and jeopardize personal safety as well as the mission. NASA put the pen through 18 months of testing. It was subsequently approved for use on a trial mission in outer space. In 1968 the pen was issued to astronauts on all manned space flights, and is still in use today by the American and Russian space program. The space pen has been featured on The Tonight Show when Carl Reiner presented the pen to Johnny Carson on the air. Most everyone on the Seinfeld episode “The Pen” also saw it. MoMA has the pen in their permanent collection in New York for years. They have cited the pen as an example of “exquisite industrial design.” The pen has been one of the most popular corporate gifts for many years. It can be laser engraved or silk-screened with a company logo or name. It can also be engraved with an individual’s name or initials. They are made in the U.S.A. and their novelty and dependability makes it appreciated by men and women alike.

You’ll find that many emergency personnel use this pen because of the reliability. The pen is not affected by grease, dirt, or adverse weather conditions. The FBI, U.S. Navy Seals, U.S. Armed Forces, and the U.S. Thunderbirds pilots, the Canadian Snowbirds and the 431AD Squadron, use it. It has even been used during the Everest North Face Ski Expedition. The pen will also write on carbonless paper and through fingerprints. It also writes on rubber, leather and many dark surfaces. This makes it ideal for contractors, carpenters, electricians and all construction and inspection personnel. The Jacques Cousteau Society as well as many other professional scuba divers also used the Space Pen. Don’t be afraid to keep this pen inside your discount luggage. You’ll find a million and one reasons to use it on vacation and business trips. If nothing else, it gives you a great story to tell about the difference between a Space Pen and any other ballpoint pen.

Remember the Space Pen will fit comfortable inside a wallet or pocket. Doctors and Nurses value the pen because of its reliability and ease in writing over any surface. It is also available with a neck chain for women. The pen became popular because of its use in outer space, but it’s dependability is what keeps people using it over and over again. In critical application, this pen is unsurpassed. It will write on X-ray film and on the glossy records in hospitals. You can also use it on latex gloves without tearing them. It’s easy to see why the Space Pen will become one of your favorite travel accessories. Whether you are flying to the moon or just going on a short trip, you’ll want to take this pen along with you. The timeless design and unparalleled dependability will accompany you anywhere you care to go.



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Fountain Pen History

The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Ma’?d al-Mu’izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib via gravity and capillary action. Al-Mu’izz commissioned the construction of the pen instructing:

“‘We wish to construct a pen which can be used for writing without having recourse to an ink-holder and whose ink will be contained inside it. A person can fill it with ink and write whatever he likes. The writer can put it in his sleeve or anywhere he wishes and it will not stain nor will any drop of ink leak out of it. The ink will flow only when there is an intention to write. We are unaware of anyone previously ever constructing (a pen such as this) and an indication of ‘penetrating wisdom’ to whoever contemplates it and realises its exact significance and purpose’. I exclaimed, ‘Is this possible?’ He replied, ‘It is possible if God so wills’.

In his Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae (1636), German inventor Daniel Schwenter described a pen made from two quills. One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill. The ink was sealed inside the quill with cork. Ink was squeezed through a small hole to the writing point. The earliest surviving reservoir pens date to the 1st century. Progress in developing a reliable pen was slow, however, into the mid-19th century. That slow pace of progress was due to a very imperfect understanding of the role that air pressure played in the operation of the pens and because most inks were highly corrosive and full of sedimentary inclusions. Starting in the 1850s there was a steadily accelerating stream of fountain pen patents and pens in production. It was only after three key inventions were in place, however, that the fountain pen became a widely popular writing instrument. Those inventions were the iridium-tipped gold nib, hard rubber, and free-flowing ink.

The first fountain pens making use of all these key ingredients appeared in the 1850s. In the 1870s Duncan MacKinnon, a Canadian living in New York City, and Alonzo T. Cross of Providence, Rhode Island created stylographic pens with a hollow, tubular nib and a wire acting as a valve. Stylographic pens are now used mostly for drafting and technical drawing but were very popular in the decade beginning in 1875. It was in the 1880s that the era of the mass-produced fountain pen finally began. The dominant American producers in this pioneer era were Waterman and Wirt, based in New York City and Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, respectively. Waterman soon outstripped Wirt, along with the many companies that sprang up to fill the new and growing fountain pen market, and remained the market leader up until the early 1920s.

At this time fountain pens were almost all filled by unscrewing a portion of the hollow barrel or holder and inserting the ink by means of an eyedropper. This was a slow and messy system. Additionally, fountain pens tended to leak inside their caps and at the joint where the barrel opened for filling. Now that the materials problems had been overcome and the flow of ink while writing had been regulated, the next problems to be solved were the creation of a simple, convenient self-filler and the problem of leakage. Self-fillers began to come into their own around the turn of the century; the most successful of these was probably the Conklin crescent-filler, followed by A. A. Waterman’s twist-filler. The tipping point, however, was the runaway success of Walter A. Sheaffer’s lever-filler, introduced in 1912, paralleled by Parker’s roughly contemporary button-filler.

Meanwhile many inventors turned their attention to the problem of leakage. Some of the earliest solutions to this problem came in the form of a “safety” pen with a retractable point that allowed the ink reservoir to be corked like a bottle. The most successful of these came from F.C. Brown of the Caw’s Pen and Ink Co. and from Morris W. Moore of Boston. In 1907 Waterman began marketing a safety pen of its own that soon became the most widely distributed such pen. For pens with nonretractable nibs, the adoption of screw-on caps with inner caps that sealed around the nib by bearing against the front of the section effectively solved the leakage problem (such pens were also marketed as “safety pens”, as with the Parker Jack Knife Safety and the Swan Safety Screw-Cap).

In Europe, the German supplies company which came to be known as Pelikan and was started in 1838, first introduced their pen in 1929, based upon the acquisition of patents for solid-ink fountain pens from the factory of Slavoljub Penkala from Croatia (patented 1907, in mass production since 1911), and the patent of the Hungarian Theodor Kovacs for the modern piston filler by 1925.

The decades that followed saw many technological innovations in the manufacture of fountain pens. Celluloid gradually replaced hard rubber, which enabled production in a much wider range of colors and designs. At the same time, manufacturers experimented with new filling systems. The inter-war period saw the introduction of some of the most notable models, such as the Parker Duofold and Vacumatic, Sheaffer’s Lifetime Balance series, and the Pelikan 100.

During the 1940s and 1950s, fountain pens retained their dominance: early ballpoint pens were expensive, prone to leaks and had irregular inkflow, while the fountain pen continued to benefit from the combination of mass production and craftsmanship. This period saw the launch of innovative models such as the Parker 51, the Sheaffer Snorkel and the Eversharp Skyline, while the Esterbrook J series of lever-fill models with interchangeable steel nibs offered inexpensive reliability to the masses.

By the 1960s, refinements in ballpoint pen production gradually ensured its dominance over the fountain pen for casual use. Although cartridge-filler fountain pens are still in common use in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and are widely used by young students in most private schools in England and at least one private school in Scotland, a few modern manufacturers (especially Montblanc) now depict the fountain pen as a collectible item or a status symbol, rather than an everyday writing tool. Despite this, a majority of modern fountain pen users use fountain pens as their primary writing instruments[3] over ballpoint and rollerball pens for reasons related to writing comfort, expressive penmanship, aesthetics, history and heritage.

Info courtesy of Wikipedia

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